Justin du Coeur

The world never stops turning. I'm mostly coming to accept that, but some of those rotations are harder than others. TSivia just posted the following:

Today (Sunday) at approximately 3pm, Countess Elaina Oaklawn ("Miss-Information" at Pennsic for many years, daughter of Lord Ralph the Oxhandler) passed away at home. At this moment her widower, Master Cerdic, has support from myself and Countess Melissa Kendall of Westmoreland, (their housemate). Funeral arrangements will be announced as soon as they are available. Elaina was a Lady of the Rose and Countess of the East Kingdom. The Countess was a strong supporter of organ donation - her wishes are being honoured - and Master Cerdic urges all who are of this opinion to sign organ donor cards and let their friends and family know this.

Master Cerdic can be emailed at: cerdic13@rogers.com.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS INFORMATION AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE TO ALL APPLICABLELISTS.

Elaina was the first Royal that Jane and I served closely, back in -- wow, '90-'91. I honestly wouldn't have realized it was so long ago. We weren't quite as core retinue for her as for Edward and Marguerite, but we were fairly close, following her around the Kingdom and beyond, including a week in Ansteorra for the Society's 25th Year Celebration. That's probably the part I'll most remember of that reign: a gaggle of perhaps 25 Easterners clustered together in a small knot, at one corner of something like five acres of land that the hosts had provided for us. The locals were amused at our inability to spread out onto the available space, but Elaina had brought her kitchen, and we all wanted to be close to it. It was a relaxed and fun encampment, and she treated all of us as personal friends, not retainers.

She insisted that we call her "Mom", and we always did -- even after the reign, she was always "Countess Mom" to us. (To distinguish her from Harriet -- "Mom Kay" -- and of course my actual Mom.) We fell out of touch with her many years ago, but have always been grateful to her for showing us how things really work, warts and all, with warmth, a smile, and a *heaping* dollop of the perspective you need in order to survive playing at the Kingdom level. She'll be missed...